Tiny houses in the Dominican Republic

Most visitors picture the Dominican Republic as all-inclusive beach — Punta Cana, Puerto Plata, the usual postcard. The cabins we've found tell a different story, split between two very different landscapes. Jarabacoa and Constanza sit up in the Cordillera Central, the mountain range that holds Pico Duarte, the highest peak in the Caribbean, and both towns run noticeably cooler than the coast — locals call this area the 'Dominican Alps' without much irony. Las Terrenas, on the other hand, is proper coast: a laid-back town on the Samaná peninsula with a long history of French and Italian expats and none of Punta Cana's high-rise density.

Jarabacoa is built around rivers — the Yaque del Norte, the Baiguate, the Jimenoa — with waterfalls, whitewater rafting and canyoning as the main draw, plus a base for hiking up Pico Duarte itself. Constanza sits higher and further into the mountains, a valley of vegetable and flower farms where nights can turn genuinely cold, giving it a quieter, more rural feel than Jarabacoa's adventure-sports buzz. Las Terrenas trades all of that for beach, fishing-village atmosphere and, from January to March, some of the best humpback whale watching in the Caribbean just offshore at the Samaná Bay.

Most of what we've found are simple wooden cabañas — one to a few rooms, several with mountain or river views in Jarabacoa and Constanza — plus a single tiny house and a converted container home. November to April is the dry season across the country and the easiest stretch to travel in; hurricane season runs June to November, heavier in the coastal east than in the mountain interior. Getting to Jarabacoa and Constanza means driving from Santiago or Santo Domingo, a couple of hours either way; Las Terrenas has its own small airport (El Catey, also called Samaná airport) as well as a longer drive from Santo Domingo.

The two regions don't really compete with each other — the mountains are for cooler air, rivers and quiet, the coast is for beach and whales — and having both listed under one country is a reminder that the Dominican Republic is bigger than its resort strip.